Welcome to JFCY’s Legal Wiki which provides information about the legal rights of children and youth in Ontario. Click here to download this information from our Publications page. Please contact us if you have any questions or trouble finding the information that you seek. You should speak to a lawyer for legal advice since laws often change.
To make a claim, fill out an application form and submit it to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “HRTO”). You can:
Yes, you must submit your application within one year of the incident that you are complaining about. If there were multiple incidents that are related to each other, then you must complain within one year of the last incident. If you miss the deadline, you can ask the HRTO to let you submit the application anyway. This will usually only be allowed if there is a good reason for missing the deadline. Speak to a lawyer if you have missed the deadline and want to make a claim.
After you submit your application, the person or organization you complained about will be given a chance to submit a “response”. That other person or organization is called the “Respondent”. The Respondent must give you a copy of their response. After the Respondent has submitted their response, the HRTO will usually ask you if you want to try “mediation”.
Mediation is a process where you and the Respondent meet with someone from the HRTO (the “mediator”) to discuss what happened and to see if you can agree on how to resolve your claim of discrimination.
This is a voluntary part of the process. You do not have to try mediation. You do not have to agree to anything at mediation and no one can force you to agree to anything at mediation.
If you and the Respondent come to an agreement at mediation, your case will end. This is called a “settlement”.
If you do not reach an agreement, then your case will be scheduled for a “hearing”.
A hearing is similar to a trial. It is an opportunity for you and the Respondent to tell the HRTO about your case. You will be allowed to give the HRTO evidence about what happened and about how it affected you. The Respondent will also be allowed to give evidence.
Evidence can be physical items such as documents and can also be from people (called “witnesses”) who come to the hearing to tell the HRTO what they know. At the end of the hearing you will get a chance to tell the HRTO why you think there was discrimination and what you think needs to happen to make things right. The Respondent will also get to tell the HRTO what they think about the incident(s).
You can be represented by a lawyer or a paralegal. If you do not have a legal representative, you can ask to have someone else be with you at a mediation and/or the hearing for support.
Before the hearing, the HRTO may contact you and the Respondent to ask about how to accommodate any special needs you may have at the hearing, or to see if there is any way to make the hearing run faster or more smoothly. For example, if you and the Respondent agree about certain things but disagree about other things, then the HRTO can plan to focus the hearing on the things you disagree about. The HRTO may also discuss your evidence and witnesses. These types of interactions with the HRTO are called “case assessments”.
The hearing is run by a decision maker from the HRTO. The decision maker of the HRTO can be a Vice Chair, a Member, or an adjudicator. That person is like the judge in a court – they get to control how the hearing goes, including how the evidence is given.
That person is also the one who makes the decision about whether your application is successful or not.
If you are successful, the adjudicator might tell the Respondent to pay you money. The adjudicator might also tell the Respondent to do specific things such as give you your job back, change the policies of the organization, or hold human rights training sessions for staff at the organization.
In some cases, such as when there is new evidence that was not available at the hearing and you do not agree with the outcome, you can ask the HRTO for a “reconsideration”. A reconsideration is when the HRTO looks at your case again and figures out whether the correct decision was made in the first place.
In cases where you are not allowed to ask for reconsideration, you can go to a court and apply for a “judicial review”. The law about judicial reviews is complicated. You should talk to a lawyer about whether you should ask for a judicial review.
Other tribunals and courts will often allow you to complain about discrimination at the same time as another related issue. However, if you complain somewhere else before you complain to the HRTO, the HRTO might decide to not hear your case or the HRTO might decide to delay your case until the other decision is finalized. If you are thinking about complaining to more than one place, you should get legal advice about your options.
Steps to Justice has information on discrimination in various contexts (work, housing, other): https://stepstojustice.ca/legal-topic/human-rights
The HRTO is part of the Social Justice Tribunals of Ontario. More information is available on their website: www.sjto.gov.on.ca/hrto/
The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) provides unique rights and procedures for young people between the ages of 12 - 17 who are charged with a criminal offence in Canada.
Going to school is a legal requirement for young people between the ages of 6 and 17. The Education Act gives parents and children specific rights in the publicly funded school system.
In Ontario, you can choose where you live when you are 16 years old. The decision to leave is often not easy and can lead to difficulties in getting all your belongings, having enough money to support yourself and attending school.
Become informed about your legal rights when it comes to decisions about your healthcare and mental healthcare treatment. This includes any procedure carried out or prescribed by a health practitioner to diagnose or treat a physical or mental health condition.
The Ontario Human Rights Code protects you from discrimination on many grounds and in many social areas. Specific legal concerns raised by youth identifying in LGBTQI2S communities are about GSAs, Trans and Gender Inclusive Spaces and changing their ID.
To make a claim, fill out an application form and submit it to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “HRTO”). You can:
Yes, you must submit your application within one year of the incident that you are complaining about. If there were multiple incidents that are related to each other, then you must complain within one year of the last incident. If you miss the deadline, you can ask the HRTO to let you submit the application anyway. This will usually only be allowed if there is a good reason for missing the deadline. Speak to a lawyer if you have missed the deadline and want to make a claim.
After you submit your application, the person or organization you complained about will be given a chance to submit a “response”. That other person or organization is called the “Respondent”. The Respondent must give you a copy of their response. After the Respondent has submitted their response, the HRTO will usually ask you if you want to try “mediation”.
Mediation is a process where you and the Respondent meet with someone from the HRTO (the “mediator”) to discuss what happened and to see if you can agree on how to resolve your claim of discrimination.
This is a voluntary part of the process. You do not have to try mediation. You do not have to agree to anything at mediation and no one can force you to agree to anything at mediation.
If you and the Respondent come to an agreement at mediation, your case will end. This is called a “settlement”.
If you do not reach an agreement, then your case will be scheduled for a “hearing”.
A hearing is similar to a trial. It is an opportunity for you and the Respondent to tell the HRTO about your case. You will be allowed to give the HRTO evidence about what happened and about how it affected you. The Respondent will also be allowed to give evidence.
Evidence can be physical items such as documents and can also be from people (called “witnesses”) who come to the hearing to tell the HRTO what they know. At the end of the hearing you will get a chance to tell the HRTO why you think there was discrimination and what you think needs to happen to make things right. The Respondent will also get to tell the HRTO what they think about the incident(s).
You can be represented by a lawyer or a paralegal. If you do not have a legal representative, you can ask to have someone else be with you at a mediation and/or the hearing for support.
Before the hearing, the HRTO may contact you and the Respondent to ask about how to accommodate any special needs you may have at the hearing, or to see if there is any way to make the hearing run faster or more smoothly. For example, if you and the Respondent agree about certain things but disagree about other things, then the HRTO can plan to focus the hearing on the things you disagree about. The HRTO may also discuss your evidence and witnesses. These types of interactions with the HRTO are called “case assessments”.
The hearing is run by a decision maker from the HRTO. The decision maker of the HRTO can be a Vice Chair, a Member, or an adjudicator. That person is like the judge in a court – they get to control how the hearing goes, including how the evidence is given.
That person is also the one who makes the decision about whether your application is successful or not.
If you are successful, the adjudicator might tell the Respondent to pay you money. The adjudicator might also tell the Respondent to do specific things such as give you your job back, change the policies of the organization, or hold human rights training sessions for staff at the organization.
In some cases, such as when there is new evidence that was not available at the hearing and you do not agree with the outcome, you can ask the HRTO for a “reconsideration”. A reconsideration is when the HRTO looks at your case again and figures out whether the correct decision was made in the first place.
In cases where you are not allowed to ask for reconsideration, you can go to a court and apply for a “judicial review”. The law about judicial reviews is complicated. You should talk to a lawyer about whether you should ask for a judicial review.
Other tribunals and courts will often allow you to complain about discrimination at the same time as another related issue. However, if you complain somewhere else before you complain to the HRTO, the HRTO might decide to not hear your case or the HRTO might decide to delay your case until the other decision is finalized. If you are thinking about complaining to more than one place, you should get legal advice about your options.
Steps to Justice has information on discrimination in various contexts (work, housing, other): https://stepstojustice.ca/legal-topic/human-rights
The HRTO is part of the Social Justice Tribunals of Ontario. More information is available on their website: www.sjto.gov.on.ca/hrto/
You can be given a ticket for breaking a provincial law if you are over the age of 16. Some of the common laws that young people are given tickets for is covered in this section.
In family law, the rights of children are unique. Become informed about going into and being in the care of a Children's Aid Society, when parents can assault you (corporal punishment / spanking exemption to assault), and your right to be heard when your parents are splitting up.
JFCY's Childhood Arrivals and Support & Advocacy Program (CASA) provides services to young people who arrived in Canada as children and are living in Ontario without immigration status.
Street Youth Legal Services (SYLS) is a program that provides information and services for homeless youth between the ages of 16 - 25. These are some of the common issues that the SYLS lawyer is asked about.
